Reviews: Being the Ricardos (2021)

Here are review links for this film submitted by our members:

Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
Travis Burgess @ The Sacred Wall
- Excerpt: Outside of Nicole Kidman’s decent performance, there is little to love about ‘Being The Ricardos’
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: [Kidman] gives one of her best performances as the red-headed comedienne, her lower, throaty voice a marvelous echo of Balls’, her imitations of Lucy Ricardo uncanny, her portrayal of the real woman revealing.
[New] | Bavner Donaldo @ Cinejour [Indonesian]
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: An informative chronicle that is more likely to delight fans of Aaron Sorkin’s writing than people who love Lucy.
Mark Leeper @
- Excerpt: One suspects this will have more appeal for those who remember the original “I Love Lucy” show, but its continuing popularity will extend the audience for this.
Nell Minow @ Moviemom
- Excerpt: I would love a world where Aaron Sorkin wrote everyone’s dialogue. Every sentence is perfectly composed. But the British have an expression “too clever by half” which I think of when he is both writer and director with no intermediary.
Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: None of it works without Kidman and Bardem carrying the weight of these titular icons on their shoulders. They’re great during the good times and even better during the bad.
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: ‘Being the Ricardos’ is an only serviceable Lucille Ball biopic that overdelivers on narrative artifice and under-delivers on stakes. Though Nicole Kidman is the big awards contender, Javier Bardem is the standout as Desi Arnaz.
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Unfortunately, Sorkin made it very clear to both Kidman and Bardem that he was “not looking for a physical or vocal impersonation of these people.” Instead, he was focused on telling their story. This hubris of the writer/director will keep “Being the Ricardos” from the awards it could have garnered.
Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Excerpt: Casting the usually wonderful Kidman as Lucille Ball is like asking Angelina Jolie to play Carol Burnett in a biopic. And putting Bardem, Oscar winner for his villainous role in No Country for Old Men, in the part of music man Desi Arnaz makes no sense at all.
Sebastian Zavala @ MeGustaElCine.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: It intertwines two different timelines, contrasting Ball’s transition from film to radio and television with the resounding success of “I Love Lucy”.